Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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Emotion Tone
Anger
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Fear
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Joy
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Analytical
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Openness
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Conscientiousness
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Extraversion
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Agreeableness
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Tone of specific sentences
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Anger
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That “word” will be the focus of vv.
21–27, where James calls believers to recognize in God’s word the demand of obedience that comes to all who claim the blessing of the new birth
story about assumed identity
Verses 19–20 may then be viewed as James’s brief announcement of a motif that is woven like a thread through the fabric of the letter.
Know this, my Beloved brother
As we saw last week James has been writing to these young Christians who have been driven from their homes, encouraging them to live faithfully as followers of Christ while facing persecution.
Last week we saw James calling these young Christians to:
We saw last week in vv.
12-18 James talking to these young Christians calling them to
1. Remain Steadfast Under Trial
2. Do Not Blame God When You Are Tempted
2.
Not Blaming God When You Are Tempted
3. Know Your Own Heart (Desires)
3. Knowing Your Own Heart (Desires)
not blaming God for temptation
4. Do Not Be Deceived
In verse 18 James reminds them that they have been brought forth by the word of truth, and that they are the first fruits of the new creation.
(If you missed last weeks sermon you can listen or watch it online)
I could see the young believers reading this letter and getting wide eyed wanting to know more about what this means.
What does it mean to be the first fruits of the new creation
4.
Not Being Deceived
What does it mean that we have been brought forth by the word of truth
This is more than just believing in something, this is a life changing event, an identity altering truth.
Through Christ the dividic promises have been fulfilled that we are born of Zion!
So before James
But before James continues his thought from v.12-18 he abruptly pauses for just a moment and wants to tell the reader something thats really important.
This abrupt interruption seems out of place, it seems sudden.
James tells them that they were
Know this, my Beloved brother
This abrupt interruption seems out of place, it seems sudden.
He had the readers on the edge of their seats wanting to know more about this being brought forth by the word of truth and first fruits stuff.
But James hits the pause button, when he says, “know this, my beloved brother:
EXAMPLE**
My Son Owen really like power tools
James had been walking us through the new creation theme, that we are the first fruits of the new creation.
I remember showing my son how to use a miter saw
I showed how the slide works
How to adjust your angles
And now, he wants to pause, and based on everything he has already said wants to address a different topic.
and how to hold the saw in order to get the best cut.
I remember showing him the trigger and when be pulled it and the saw kicked on his eyes got really big and he looked at at me.
And I had a moment like this where paused what we were doing and I looked at Owen, and like James said something like, “know this, my beloved son, this blade is very sharp and can cut your little fingers off”
James wants them to understand something before he continues
James wants them to understand something before he continues
He says, Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.
you tell them what you’re going to tell them
you tell them
Here James echoes wisdom from the book of proverbs and other Jewish sources.
then you tell them what you told them.
Before these young Christians start pondering the theology of what it is to be a new creation in Christ, James wants them to know what it looks like practically
This is what James is doing in verses 19-20
And what it looks like is being quick to hear and slow to speak.
He telling us what he going to tell us
James wants these young Christians to cultivate a habit of listening well.
he introduces the themes of
anger
hearing
he talks about
the wise man listens
and speaking
then in 21-27
He listens to wisdom,
He listens to teaching
He listens when people speak so he will know how to answer
And most importantly he listen to the word of God, that same word that brought them forth as first fruits.
Not only does wise man listen, but he slow to speak.
I wise man once said, “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt.”
James knows the power of the words,
James wants his readers to understand the power of words, for by them God created the whole world, and by them we can destroy.
in chapter three he says it
can set forests abaze
that it can set the entire course of life on fire
he says its restless evil
full of poison
with it we bless God and curse those created in his image
The tongue is so powerful James is saying be slow to speak, know what you are saying, be sure your words are in keeping with who you are as a child of God.
Not only are we to be slow to speak but we are also to be slow to anger.
Uncontrolled Anger leads to uncontrolled speech
I think its interesting how these two things are linked: so often Uncontrolled Anger leads to uncontrolled speech
Uncontrolled Anger leads to uncontrolled speech
Uncontrolled Anger leads to uncontrolled speech
How often do we find ourselves regretting words spoke “ in the heat of the moment”
Most of the time the confession that follows anger includes words spoken.
Does God really expect us to feel the way he feels about things?
The Wise person, James tells us, will learn to control the emotion of anger and so eliminate one of the most common sources of hasty and unwise speech.
James focuses in on anger here and explains why we should be slow to anger
look at 1.20
Because the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
Does James intend to prohibit all anger of any kind?
I don’t think so.
Because the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
James is making a generalization here that is generally true.
Does James intend to prohibit all anger of any kind—even what we sometimes called “righteous anger”?
Probably not.
James falls into the wisdom genre at this point.
And wisdom sayings are notorious for the use of apparently absolute assertions in order to make a general, “proverbial” point.
Qualification of that general truth is often found in other biblical contexts.
So we can assume that James intends us to read his warning as a general truth that applies in most cases: human anger is not usually pleasing to God, leading as it does to all kinds of sins.
That it can never be pleasing to God would be an interpretation that is insensitive to the style in which James writes at this point
In fact, the style in which is he writing allows him to make such generalizations.
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